Chrysler

The average age of those who buy new Chryslers? Sixty-two. That’s not good for a brand that’s looking to expand into new markets and thereby increase sales. Invariably, such a strategy means younger buyers will need to be lured into the showroom.

In order to entice younger buyers, Chrysler reportedly plans toenhance its so-called ‘S’ sub-brand, starting with the refreshed200 sedan (the old Sebring) and the more heavily revised 300, that Chrysler says will appeal to those who want something a little more “edgy.”

Exterior chrome will be blacked-out, interior wood will be replaced with carbon fiber and traditionally staid interior colors will now be offered in brighter red hues. There won’t necessarily be any modifications to the car’s driving characteristics, as this is intended to be a styling exercise only.

“We basically blew the old car up. The number of parts we carried over from the last car you can just about hold in your hands,” said Mitch Clauw, Chief Engineer on the 2011 Chrysler 300.

He was responding to repeated questions about the new sedan. Was it all-new, or just a heavy refresh like the 200 Sedan? You can’t blame journalists for being confused. Chrysler’s product onslaught is putting 16 all-new and significantly improved models on the road this year. But all-new is a very different thing from significantly improved.

Clauw supported his answer, “Every exterior panel is new. Every piece in the interior is new. With the underbody, just a few pieces of the front floor pan are carry over. The front and rear aluminum suspension pieces and geometry are different. So is the steering. The V6 is all new. While the internals of the Hemi are carryover, the intake, exhaust and accessories are not.” Okay, we believe him now, but you’d need really big hands to hold the carried-over five-speed automatic transmission.

Chrysler has had plenty of partnerships over the years, and as odd as it may have seemed in the beginning, the tie-in with Fiat arguably makes more sense than any of those past pairings. Chrysler doesn’t have much of a presence overseas, and Fiat doesn’t in North America. Putting them together, then, could be the perfect formula for global success. The Fiat 500 is coming to North America, and while we’ve been hearing about Chrysler vehicles being sent to Europe for quite some time now, this is the first actual proof.

The vehicle you see here will be unveiled at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show as the Fiat Freemont. Look familiar? That’s because it’s essentially the Dodge Journey with a different badge on the nose. Otherwise it’s essentially the same vehicle, produced alongside the Journey at the same plant in Toluca, Mexico.

The only major difference to speak of is under the hood, where Fiat’s own 2.0-liter MultiJet turbo diesel engines (with 140 or 170 horsepower) will be offered with front-wheel drive and a manual gearbox initially. All-wheel drive, an automatic transmission and Chrysler’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 will be offered shorly after the initial launch. The full details are available in the press release after the break, and see the Journey-come-Fiat for yourself in the high-res gallery below.Read more…

Chrysler, the automaker at the forefront of the minivan movement back in the 1980s, is seriously rethinking its family-hauler business. As we reported earlier, Chrysler will be scrapping one of its two minivan twins by 2013, making room for a smaller micro-van to launch within the next few years – a vehicle that will compete with the likes of the Ford C-Max and Mazda5. Now, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has reportedly confirmed that a hybrid version of the company’s next-generation minivan is on its way, scheduled to debut by 2013.

The powertrain slated for use in the hybrid minivan will use the same powertrain technology that we’ll be seeing in the gasoline-electric version of the Chrysler 300 sedan, also set to launch in 2013. The new van will be built at the automaker’s Windsor Assembly Plant in Canada – the factory where both the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan are built today.

Creative talent can be a tricky thing. An artist may have control over their work if they keep it private, but the minute they commercialize their talents for a paying customer, well, things can get a bit ugly. That’s how you get stories of artists reclaiming paintings they’ve sold because they don’t like the people looking at them, or writers walking off movie sets infuriated at the direction their screenplay has gone. What’s common in artistic circles or in Hollywood, though, doesn’t come up much in the automotive industry. Not much, but it happens.

Take, for example, one Webb Bland, the photographer behind the recently leaked photos of the new 2012 Chrysler 200 Convertible. A beautiful set of shots, to be sure, but Bland has gone on an absolute tirade on his Facebook page, enraged that the photos were leaked ahead of schedule. In his fury, Bland lashed out at his client Chrysler and the “lone, misguided idiot” who leaked the photos, thus ruining “five weeks of careful planning and logistics”.

Bland’s wrath, however, is not reserved for his clients alone; he goes on to lambaste the “many car blogs [that] have already run many of the photos cropped awkwardly, without context or back story, and at a horribly compressed resolution, on top of that.” Hey, that’s us! You’ll have to read the full diatribe (which we’ve posted for you after the jump in case the shooter gets second thoughts) to get all the expletives we’ve left out, but while – for our part at least – we’re not about to engage Bland in his ranting, we can’t help but wonder if he’s ever heard the old adage, “Don’t pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.”